Month: July 2014

Spiritual Company Newsletter

By Steffan Vanel • Astrologer • Tarot Reader

July 26, 2014

Dear Friends and Clients,

First of all I want to apologize to those of you who were not receiving my newsletters these past few months. I finally figured out it was a glitch going on between my newsletter service and my yahoo account. It seems to have been fixed now.

Fortunately you have only missed the Starwise monthly forecasts as I was so busy during my recent travels in Asia that was unable to write anything more than that.

Today I finally have the time to respond to those of you who have been requesting that I share a few words regarding the craziness of the world at this time.

The title of this article relates to the fact that this month, within a few days of the crash of Malaysian Airliner 17, both Saturn and Uranus stopped moving. When a slower-moving planet ‘stations’ like that, it is always a strong moment. Having two at the same time is the poignant Astrological signature of this time period.

I have often said that there is a spectrum. On one end of it is security and on the other end is freedom. And everyone has to feel where he or she is the most comfortable on that spectrum. It has always seemed to me that most of society is always way down at the security end of this spectrum, whereas I’ve always felt myself to be choosing freedom over security, although in my later years that is certainly shifting a bit.

Astrologically we can place Saturn at the security end and Uranus at the end of freedom. It was, however the Uranian urges toward freedom, which was previously moving forwards, stimulating pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine, surprise youthful migrations from Central America, and Hamas rockets from Gaza, which has now stopped and has started moving backwards in retrograde motion, making it’s energy less available for new ventures like that.

And it was Saturn which had been less available in retrograde motion, which stopped, and is now moving forwards and is therefore more available for greater Saturnian responsibility, discipline and commitment towards what will truly serve the interests of security for all. Hence my title: Freedom (i.e. Uranus) on the Brakes & Security (i.e. Saturn) on the Gas.

Of course all of these national entities have their own Astrological stories going on. Way too much for me to tackle right now. Ukraine, Russia and Putin I have written about previously and that article is archived on my website.

I did want to share a little socio-political and Astrological commentary regarding the children arriving at the U.S. border from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. There is obvious karma here, and it shows how the results of your actions create rippling effects that eventually bounce back to you.

I was listening to interviews with individuals in Honduras expressing the political strife, the poverty and the gang violence which is presently prevalent in their nation. One interviewee, however, stated that Hondurans who live near the Nicaraguan border go over to Nicaragua for their healthcare, because in Nicaragua they have free socialized medicine.

Clearly we haven’t heard much about children arriving from Nicaragua. Those of us old enough to remember the Senior Bush and especially Reagan years well remember that the socialist Sandanista government in Nicaragua in the 1980’s was declared to be our enemy and we placed our covert military support into backing right-wing military governments in …. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Ironically it is now Nicaragua which is the relatively stable society.

Because of that war the U.S. was obliged to accept refugee status for many immigrants coming from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Many of you may have heard this and how many of these kids arriving at our border are relatives of, or even children of, these earlier immigrants.

There is a poignant voice which I have been hearing, however, like a ghost from the past. It was a speech given in 1968. This was during the last period of similarly intense Pluto/Uranus engagement as we are currently experiencing.

I heard this speech in 2008 for that year was the 40th anniversary of the death of Robert Kennedy, the fallen younger brother of President John F. Kennedy who was himself running for President that year. The speech was his last campaign speech before being shot. The part of his speech which struck me at the time his putting out an appeal for something which I could never imagine any political candidate today coming anywhere close to uttering such a similar appeal. The appeal was to increase aid and assistance to our neighbors in Central and South America, citing how a nation as wealthy as our own should not turn a blind eye towards those so close to us.

Could you imagine anyone trying to get popular support for something like that today? Or at least before these 52,000 children showed up?

Instead we trained their nations in violence in the years since 1968, and today, most of the guns in the hands of gangs in Central America are smuggled in from the lax-gun-law Western U.S. states.

Imagine, however, if Robert Kennedy had won the Presidency in 1968 instead of Richard Nixon….

This situation reminds me of two things One is the intense Astrological ‘exam’ currently going on in relation to the U.S. Astrological Birthchart ‘curriculum.’

The part of our curriculum being confronted is our Saturn in the Tenth House of ‘work, career, ‘role’ in the world,’ which is natally square to our Sun in Cancer in the Seventh House of partnerships and relationships with others.

The Sun in Cancer is the soul potential of the U.S. well-expressed by these words from the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty:

The Saturn Square to that Sun in Cancer is the karmic restriction and limitation upon that Cancerian Soul potential. This is Hilarion’s pronouncement for the Karmic lesson involving Saturn in the 10th House:

Tenth House
When Saturn is found in the tenth sector, the meaning is that the individual must put considerable effort into his job or career in order to make it a success. Lacking this effort — and a good deal of care and caution the career will tend to turn sour again and again. The lesson is simply to devote a reasonable effort to making one’s job a success. If this is done, then no problems will be encountered. However, past life habits of sloth and inattention have usually been brought forward into this life, and it is these which the job reverses are meant to correct.

This restrictive Saturnian tension upon our ability to fully accept responsibility for our ‘role’ in the world, in tension with our Cancerian potential as expressed in that Statue of Liberty poem is something I have recognized in conflicts in this nation’s experience from Thomas Jefferson vs. Alexander Hamilton, to the North and South in the Civil War to today’s Republican and Democratic conflicts, and to periods of generous beneficence to those who are suffering or in harm’s way in the world, to periods of ‘Isolationism.’

The Saturn in the U.S. birthchart is in the 15th degree of Libra and the Sun is in the 14th degree of Cancer. This natal Saturn/Sun square is currently experiencing a ‘Grand Cross’ in tension with the Pluto/Uranus Square in the sky right now. Pluto is currently moving forwards at the 13th degree of Capricorn (squaring our Saturn and opposing our Sun) and Uranus is moving backwards at the 17th degree of Aries, (opposing our Saturn and squaring our Sun).

I mentioned this in my predictions for 2014 and the likelihood that it would involve the on-going gridlock between the two political parties. Since the Sun is in the 7th House of relationships, however, I also stated that the tension could involve our relationships with others….like Russia, Israel, Palestinians etc..

The next exact Pluto/Uranus Square will be in December at the 14th degrees of Capricorn/Aries, and likely relatable to the aftermath of the mid-term elections, if not several of the intense relationships we are currently dealing with around the world.

I will end this article with Hilarion’s pronouncement regarding the U.S. in his book: Nations. This is the other thing which this time period and our ‘current exams’ reminds me of, both for the obvious resonant criticism of our nation and for the, difficult at times to believe, optimism and positive vision it holds for our nation:

AMERICA has lost her generosity.
Once, when the world was groaning in the aftermath of a great and terrible war, she stood forth with her riches in her hand, offering them freely to those who had been broken by the strife. She did not refuse to give of herself, of her wealth, of her energy and of her love. What Europe has become today is largely a result of the generosity of the American spirit and the ideals of brotherhood which this country has held so high.

But today America has drawn back and has closed the door to other nations. She has sealed herself behind a wall and refuses to offer help to those less fortunate than herself.

This great country must have its rebirth along with all the rest. In many ways she is the greatest nation the earth has ever known. But she is flawed today by a blindness which has crept into her perception of the world. In the terrible years ahead, although she herself will be preserved almost to the end from the full onslaught, she will see with increasing alarm the destruction and the loss which the baser passions of man will bring.

At last, in an agony of the soul, America will again stand forth with her love, to rescue and nurture the peoples of the world whose nations have collapsed and disintegrated in the terrors that man has brought upon himself. By that act she will again and for all time-be purified. In the new age that will dawn for mankind, America will lead the world as a great and burning beacon of truth, of justice, of peace and of purity.